LEAD MY REVOLUTION

Southgate has identified Kane as the inspirational figurehead for his team

HE would not say it, and claimed he was in no rush to make the final decision, but Harry Kane is surely the man Gareth Southgate sees as the leader of his revolution.

Southgate will name a permanent England skipper at some stage, but said he has not thought beyond the game against Scotland in terms of the captaincy.

It is clear, though, that Kane is a character who Southgate believes can inspire and become a figurehead of his squad.

As the England manager confirmed he was giving Kane the armband at the earliest opportunity – this will be the Tottenham striker’s first appearance for Southgate at senior level – he waxed lyrical about his mindset.

Southgate said: “Harry’s mentality is excellent. He has a very good view of the game. He is keen to lead. We have different types of leaders in this group. I’ve worked with Harry at the Under-21s and I know his mentality.

“He wants to be one of the best in the world.”

Kane, 23, (below) said earlier in the week that he did not consider himself too young to be England captain and insisted this squad had leaders all over the pitch.

Southgate agreed, adding: “What makes a good captain is the ability to bring the group together.

“You have to have the respect of the group, certain personal qualities where you are prepared to stand up and take responsibility at certain moments, set examples on the training pitch with the way you look after yourself.

“We have a lot of those players.”

Kane’s positive approach when you look at the top players. Harry’s goals record over the last three seasons speaks for itself. When we worked with the Under-21s, his finishing was clear.

“You saw that level of finishing in the likes of Fowler, Scholes, Shearer.

“Then it was about transferring that into matches as he wasn’t playing for Spurs at the time, but he’s done that.”

England are hot favourites to win at Hampden Park and take another giant step towards Russia 2018.

And Southgate is clearly thrilled with the direction his squad is taking, adding: “What I do feel is we’re culturally shifting to where we’d like to be, in terms of the way we work, the way we carry ourselves.

“We want to make the public proud of the team, but also in the way we play, we want to excite them.

“The players want to play that way, be on the front foot. They have tremendous belief in themselves. They are hungry and excite me.”

Clearly, no one is hungrier or excites Southgate more than Kane.